What I Use: Google Products and Services

I regularly get emails from readers who are trying to find replacements for various Google services. And though I understand this desire, the truth is that certain Google products and services simply don’t have viable alternatives. So while I did successfully migrate from Gmail to Microsoft's Outlook.com, I still use some Google offerings regularly. They’re just indispensable.

Google Chrome

While I split my PC-based browsing time between Internet Explorer and Chrome, and prefer IE for certain things, including its support for multi-tab pinned web sites, I use Google Chrome regularly as well. Chrome supports incredible sync capabilities tied to a Google account, and because this account uses 2-step verification, it’s secure. (If you’ve not enabled this feature, do so.)

I use Google Chrome for all of my work-related article posting and comments moderation. And the fact that site logins, bookmarks (which I only use through the bookmarks bar), and browser extensions are all synced immediately from PC-to-PC is just huge. I just love Chrome.

Google Reader

Even if I didn’t write about technology for a living, I’d still use Google Reader. This amazing cloud-based RSS reader provides me with my morning burst of tech information courtesy of the many technology web sites and blogs to which I’m subscribed, and keeps me up to date throughout the day.

And Google Reader works everywhere: I use the standard web app, but there are third party native apps on every mobile platform imaginable. And while some of the Windows Phone apps are particularly good, even the Google Reader mobile site is top notch. That’s what I use.

Google News

As with Reader, Google News is key because I write about technology news, and I pin both the Google News Technology page and Google Reader to a single IE shortcut on my taskbar. Google News aggregates content from multiple services, but it also lets you create shortcuts to topics you care about the most. In my case that includes Microsoft topics—Microsoft, Windows 8, Windows Phone, Xbox, and so on—and related topics such as Amazon.com, Google, and Apple.

Google’s mobile version of News is less attractive than it could be on Windows Phone, but it gets the job done.

YouTube

I assume I don’t have to explain why YouTube is so useful generally. But in recent days it’s occurred to me that I can safely upload my personal videos to the service and then make them available only to family members. This is a kind of a huge and stealthy YouTube feature, and I’ll be working on that over the holiday season. Regardless, YouTube is universally available on all devices and platforms, and there’s nothing quite like it.

Is there any shame in using Google stuff? I don’t think so, and as with all things in life you should simply be pragmatic. In these cases for me, and perhaps others for you, Google does make some pretty amazing products and services.

I agree. I like ModernReader very much and it works quite well. It does NOT cache offline if that's important to someone, but I find the whole caching thing painful in the other apps and annoying when I'm actually connected to the web.

Nobody yet that I've found makes a perfect blend that give the immediacy of access when connected but give the capability to cache when you want to go offline and still read later.

Paul, you might want to check Nextgen Reader in Windows Phone - I'm not sure if it's available for your WP8, I use a WP7.5 device. Anyway, it's far, far better than the google reader app (which isn't very good...) in fact eversince I discovered it a year ago, that's all I use for my RSS feeds!

I could not survive without Google Reader, with that and Youtube I will never escape Google's clutches. I'm surprised that MS hasn't come up with an alternative to Google Reader. My favorite 3rd party Google Reader apps are Wonder Reader for WP, and Nextgen Reader for Windows 8/RT.

What's interesting to me is when I do switch away from Google services, I don't even notice. Since I got my Windows Phone, I use my Microsoft account a lot more. I didn't migrate anything to the new account, it just happened. This has left my Google Calendar and Docs (or whatever it's called today) in sort of a funny, random, stagnant state. It's like walking a post-apocalyptic city if I need to get an old file out of there. I'm not normally one to just desert files and things, but in this case, I just jumped ship!

I like Google News too. However, there is no doubt in my mind that in the Technology section, vast majority of the articles related to Microsoft, Windows, Windows Phone, etc., are negative articles. It is very clear to me that the editors of the Technology section are picking the negative articles. Google News is not a random news search site. And when it comes to Technology news, it is abviouse that the editors are playing a nasty game.

There is no true replacement for Youtube. Msft tried with MSN Soapbox a few years ago.
However, the reason I stopped using my Gmail, Chrome browser and all related Google products is the atrocious way they handle my personal information.

There is no true replacement for Youtube. Msft tried with MSN Soapbox a few years ago.
However, the reason I stopped using my Gmail, Chrome browser and all related Google products is the atrocious way they handle my personal information.

Considering Google's ToS and how manage my private stuff, I don't use their services anymore and there are many viable alternatives despite what Paul said.

• Google Chrome — We have IE10.
• Google Reader — There are many great RSS readers able to do the job once you've set our feeds right. For instance, on WP, I use Fuse; it's even better than Weave. On Windows8's Metro/WDL, I use News Bento right now.
• Google News — It's not like there weren't any good news agregators out there. Beside, in Europe, the press is going away from Google in a way that you won't get the headlines from the main newspapers anymore in France.
• YouTube — granted, for content consumption, it's hard to skip that one. But if it's to upload videos to the cloud then Dailymotion and Vimeo are good alternatives too!

All in all, it may take a bit more efforts but there are solutions outside of Google. But of course, if you don't value your privacy, then Google is just fine. On the other hand if you care, I would advise to stay as far away from Google as possible!

I don't mind using Google products. Like I say, I like Google (products) but I don't know if I trust it.

I use all the mentioned Google products, specially Chrome (sync is its best feature), YouTube (there's no other -- for better or worst?), and News (I like that I can customize it). I use Reader for Tumblrs I follow but am not subscribed to.

Though I have it installed and updated (as well as Firefox, as backup browsers and to use with different accreditations), being fair I couldn't care less about Chrome, which keeps being particularly buggy while offering nothing really to bring me back.

That said, I'm a compulsive Google Reader user (less so youtube and gmail, though also use both) and personally find myself preferring NextGen reader on WP and W8 tablets to Google's own offerings on Android. On the PC though, I still rather use Reader's website, which is best for keyboard/mouse.

Paul,
Why not use Picasaweb that includes youtube back-end for videos. It uploads them seamlessly and you can sync them.
I still use picasa (without Google+) for videos and pictures I'm worried that Google is killing it slowly.

I uploaded some family videos to youtube last year. Carefully made them a private link in case some folks didn't want them public. Sent a link for some family members to see them. The next day, one of my nephews put them all on his facebook page. Think twice before putting your private stuff in a public entity.

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